Shuffling the Deck
by The Owlish Olympian
Summary: Cammie is alone right before the semester starts, bored out of her mind. Zach surprises her with a visit and they have a little fun with a deck of cards. ONE-SHOT.


SHUFFLING THE DECK

Find the half. Take apart. Stack one on the other sideways to even positions. Press down on the middle while thumbs let cards slip down on top of each other into shuffled pile. Bring your four fingers to the edges and thumb pressed on top of middle. Bend cards up and let go, pushing in with top of palm.

Cammie repeated that process over and over, just shuffling the card deck repeatedly. Bex wasn't back yet, Macey was being delayed in Japan, and Liz was working on some new data she'd uncovered down in the labs. So Cammie wasn't planning to play cards with anyone. She wasn't planning to play at all.

She just kept shuffling and broke into a small smile when she did it properly and was rewarded with a shuttering sound; the cards collapsing back onto themselves. Even switching sometimes so that the logo was being shuffled onto the common room coffee table instead. Cammie was so distracted in getting the little things to stack properly that she didn't notice the door open slightly. She didn't catch the soft patter of footsteps on the carpet behind her.

That's why Cammie jumped a million miles when she heard a, "You know, Gallagher Girl, you're getting rusty. I wasn't even being quiet," from over her head. Her first instinct was to, naturally, sweep the feet of the person behind her out from under them so she could attack them instantly after. So that's what she did. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that person was Zach until she's already punched him in the gut.

"Oh my gosh, Zach!" Cammie exclaimed immediately after she caught sight of pained, dark green eyes and shaggy brown hair that stuck up in all the right places. Zach was, credibly, trying to get his breath back before he answered so as not to alarm her with his—currently—cracking voice.

Eventually, he started breathing evenly as Cammie's hair hovered warily above his surprised face. Zach slowly plastered a smirk all over his mouth (that Cammie so desperately wanted to kiss, but shh!)

"Never mind, Gallagher Girl. You seem to be functioning fine," Zach admitted, putting his hands behind his head like he hadn't just hit the floor per his sorta-kinda-girlfriend's actions. Cammie laughed breathlessly and smiled. After a minute or two of just looking at each other, Zach sat up and motioned to the card deck. "Shuffling for solitaire?"

Cammie shook her head sadly. "No, just shuffling. I don't know why, I guess I'm bored a bit."

"Well," Zach started mischievously, "I know how to make you _un_-bored."

She smacked his arm playfully while he smirked and continued to say, "You didn't deny you wouldn't like it."

Cammie rolled her eyes as Zach pulled her in for a hug, which she 'tolerated', as she later described to the girls, though she secretly enjoyed being able to close her eyes—even if for a few seconds—and relax into him. Eventually, though, she pushed him away, not wanting to give him the impression she enjoyed it. Zach totally knew anyways, though.

"What brings you here?" Cammie asked. "You're supposed to be at Blackthorne by now, right? Break is almost over."

Zach smirk—again—and answers, "Yeah, I know, but I haven't seen my Gallagher Girl in almost two weeks. Two weeks!"

Cammie's breath hitched and her heart sped up at Zach's words. She suddenly found the carpet very interesting as she blushed a bright cherry red. Zach decided that this was a perfect time to tease her.

"What, Gallagher Girl? My little words twist your tongue?" Zach questioned faux innocently. Cammie ducked her head even more and thought she would die if she answered, so she picked the better of the two choices: No.

Even as she shook her head, Zach knew it wasn't true. He could see the way she diverted her gaze from him and hesitated a moment before answering. "Liar."

She blushed even deeper, but let him see her flaming cheeks when her head snapped up in defiance. He grinned at her sudden anger, but allowed her to contradict him.

"No," Cammie told him flatly. "You're just not as appealing as you wish you were."

Zach put a hand over his lower chest. "Hurts. It hurts right here, Gallagher Girl."

"Maybe because I punch like a guy," Cammie countered airily, starting to shuffle the deck again. Zach mock pouted, but observed her, nevertheless, dividing the deck in half and failing to make the shutter sound over and over. She sighed and tossed the deck—once she'd put it in the box—onto the chair beside the couch she leaned against the foot of.

"Here," Zach offered, picking up the deck with ease, "watch."

He bent the cards farther when he shuffled them, then bent them up more and held his thumbs tighter when he relaxed the cards. The thing Cammie noticed, though, was that he didn't push in until he'd begun to relax the cards.

"Don't push in so soon and you should do fine," Zach assured her, giving her the stack. Cammie took a deep breath and did as he told. It took her a few good tries, several bad ones, and two times of giving up, but finally, she made a sufficient, leisurely shuttering noise.

She grinned, but then frowned. She rhetorically asked, "Why do you always have to be so _right_?"

"Be more specific. That sentence could be interpreted in so many ways," Zach teased, laughing throughout the sentence. Cammie's mouth dropped open and she hit him on the arm very hard. She didn't try to hurt him, but Zach genuinely grimaced at this.

"Geez, Gallagher Girl, why did you have to hit so hard?" Zach demands, checking out the five-star on his bicep. She smirked and cocked her hip.

"I don't know, why do you have to be so perverted?" she replied, crawling over to where he still sat, clearly seeing the relatively smaller hand print a few inches above his elbow. Cammie's eyebrows creased as she looked it over.

"Sorry, Zach, didn't think I hit so hard," Cammie apologized sincerely. Zach chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist. She glanced curiously at this, but he continued on like she didn't do anything.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," Zach told her forcefully.

Cammie's eyebrows shot up to her hairline in surprise. "Why?"

"Because you're about to hit me _very_ hard," he confessed. Before she could ask whatever that meant, he brought his lips down to hers and kissed her gently. He sighed in relief, having had been unable to focus on anything because he'd been thinking about her all break.

Cammie actually wasn't going to hit him. She forgot. But also, in fact, she was more prepared to hit herself for, right then, thinking, '_This_ is what I call shuffling the deck'.

**A/N: I know the end is pretty sucky, but I had fun writing this. I was shuffling cards for no reason and just thought of this. By the way, this is a one-shot. That's it. No if's, or's, or but's about it. Please review and tell me what you think!**


End file.
